New faces give Sixers flexibility in rotations, practices

PHILADELPHIA — Seeing an unfamiliar face at the 76ers’ practice facility shouldn’t come as a surprise these days. Not for the league’s greenest team. And not for the team that signed two players and sent two others packing a day earlier.

So when the curtain rose at PCOM, opening the Sixers’ Thursday practice session to reporters, it didn’t seem at all peculiar that a new guy wearing a team T-shirt was drenched in sweat. Except it wasn’t a new guy. It was Curtis Sumpter, the former Villanova standout and, as of two months ago, the Sixers’ video coordinator, who got some run in the team’s intrasquad scrimmage.

Using Sumpter on the court won’t be a regular thing for the Sixers, now that they’ve acquired enough healthy bodies to field a real-deal scrimmage. Guards Lorenzo Brown and Elliot Williams, who were signed Wednesday, got their first practices under the belts.

“We can actually have some kind of practice, when you’re not having your assistant video coordinator as the three-man, who’s pretty good by the way,” Sixers coach Brett Brown said of Sumpter. “He’s blocking peoples’ shots, he’s making 3s. I’m saying he’s going to be the best-skilled assistant video coordinator in the league.”

Adding Brown and Williams — and excising third-string point guard Darius Morris and injured center Kwame Brown — gives the Sixers a dozen players who are available on a nightly basis, which hasn’t been the case at any stage of this 13-game-old season.

As for Lorenzo Brown and Williams, who debuted Wednesday, their first practice session with the Sixers was somewhat uneventful, Brett Brown said.

“They’re no different than that group (with which) we’re trying to identify and catch lightning in a bottle and find keepers and do our due diligence and give people opportunities,” Brown said. “It’s a natural sort of cleansing you go through when you start building a team, that people come in and it’s a fantastic opportunity for everybody in this gym — to be able to come into an NBA environment, to get minutes, to get seen, to be put in a game, to know the direction this organization is heading, and that’s the opportunity these young guys will be given.”

Adding the two rangy guards to a team previously steeped in bodies for the backcourt means that the Sixers have the ability to field intrasquad scrimmages on practice days … and allow other players to return to their natural positions.

“I get more excited (about that) than getting new blood in,” Brett Brown said. “… And Brandon (Davies, a rookie forward) is more happy than any of us. Sometimes, you put fingers in holes just to plug stuff. ‘You’re a three-man, a four-man, a five-man.’ (Davies) can live in a simple world and that will help him, too.”

The Sixers’ last three games are tethered together by more than a losing result. In each, James Anderson found a groove from the floor.

It hasn’t been easy for Anderson, the starting shooting guard, to adjust to playing regularly. The offseason waiver-wire pickup was a reserve in each of his first three seasons in the league. Averaging 33.9 minutes per appearance, Anderson is slowly picking up steam.

He’s logged double-figure scoring totals in each of his last three games, including 13 points on 5-for-11 shooting Wednesday.

“I’m starting to find my way and find my rhythm offensively,” said Anderson, a soft-toned speaker. “I want to get stuff done, low-key.”